There’s a “new king in town” when it comes to congressional stock traders — at least when it comes to AI chipmaker Nvidia.
Silicon Valley Rep. Ro Khanna earned a 143% return of between $100,000 and $250,000 on Nvidia stock that his wife purchased in February 2024, before the federal CHIPS Act helped to more than double the company’s share price.
The well-timed trade by the progressive Democrat — who teamed up with Sen. Bernie Sanders to push a national billionaire tax, enraging his wealthy constituents — was called out by Anthony Pompliano, who compiled data on members of Congress who traded AI-related stocks.
The lucky Nvidia shares are part of a trust worth tens of millions held by Khanna’s wife, Ritu, a wealthy heiress whose father founded Transtar Industries Inc., an automotive transmission distributor.
Pompliano’s analysis suggested that Khanna — as a ranking member of the House Armed Services Subcommittee on Cyber, Innovative Technologies and Information Systems, which oversees defense AI procurement — could have been privy to inside information.
However, his overall returns in 2025 slightly underperformed the market — suggesting his booming Nvidia holdings are propping up his portfolio.
“I have been a leader to ban Congressional stock trading, do not trade, and have no input in the trades filed by my wife’s trust,” Khanna wrote in his own defense on X.
The progressive rep is ranked as the most active Democratic trader in the House of Representatives — with more than $600 million in trading volume across a staggering 37,172 trades, according to Quiver Quantitative.
Data on Khanna’s total returns weren’t immediately available, but the site shows the rep buying up shares in Albertson’s, Berkshire Hathaway, Blackrock Financial, Coinbase and other valuable firms throughout February.
Critics have blasted Khanna as hypocritical for railing against the ultra-wealthy while profiting handsomely from his family investments.
“Nancy Pelosi is rich and everyone knows it — she doesn’t try to hide it. Ro tries to be a man of the people,” said Ethan Agarwal, who’s challenging Khanna for his congressional seat.
“It’s the hypocrisy of it is that’s causing such a stir.”
Chamath Palihapitiya, a prominent venture capitalist and critic of the billionaire tax, called Khanna a “terrible representative of Silicon Valley.”
“The sad thing is that Ro is the guy preaching for socialism while he is the most active insider trader in Congress,” he wrote on X.
Khanna’s wealth and work in Congress have been scrutinized before. A 2022 New York Times investigation found significant potential conflicts between Khanna’s congressional work and family’s interest, calculating a 15% overlap between his legislative work and family holdings.
“It’s legal, but does that mean you’re forced to trade? No one’s forcing you to do this,” Agarwal said.
“He thinks people are stupid.”
Other representatives with hefty AI-related investment returns include Pelosi — whose husband’s stock returns are so exceptional they are widely copied through an online “Pelosi Tracker” — as well as Republican Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene, Michael McCaul and Markwayne Mullin, as well as Democratic Rep. Cleo Fields.
Congress has tried and failed over the years to rein in stock trading by members.
A Republican-led bill called the Stop Insider Trading Act would add restrictions on stock trading, though Democrats have criticized the measure as filled with loopholes.
